Titus chapter 2 is filled with advice for young men and young women who want to honor God with their lives. You can think of this as how God wants you to live as a Christian teenager.
Remember, the book of Titus was written to Christians who faced all kinds of threats from the culture around them. Much of the book of Titus is trying to teach Christians how to protect themselves from these threats. As we have already seen in this study, we face threats too. If you live like God wants you to live, you can overcome these threats in your life.
Stuff for young women
In Titus, there are instructions to four different groups of people: older men, older women, young women, and young men. In this section, we are going to focus on the words for young women. Now, some of this will really only apply when you are married, but there are a few things you can start living out today:
Titus 2:4-5 …train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands.
The stuff about loving your husbands and kids is for the future, but let’s focus on the qualities you can start working on right now.
- Self-control. This is translated as “live wisely.” Ladies, God calls you to self-control. There are lots of ways you could apply this in your life, but one thing it means is that you need to learn to control your words. It’s often acceptable to gossip about people – even your friends, but God wants you to practice self-control with your words.
- Purity. God wants you to live to please him in every part of your life. God wants you to pursue purity in all of your relationships, and especially in any dating relationships. Your purity is more important than making your boyfriend happy.
- Kindness. God wants Christians, especially Christian women, to focus on being good and helping others. Ask yourself, are you helping others, or only focused on yourself?
Now, let’s turn to the guys.
Stuff for young men
Titus 2:6-7 Encourage the young men to live wisely. And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching.
- Self-controlled. Just like God tells young women to live self-controlled lives, he commands young men to be self-controlled. This means that you aren’t supposed to be controlled by your temptations and desires. There are lots of temptations for young men, but God’s Spirit gives you the power to overcome those temptations. And you need to make it our goal to be self-controlled.
- Do good works. Remember what we talked about in the first lesson. God wants you to live a life of good works. Lots of your friends might be into all kinds of things. But the most important thing you can do is good works that honor God.
- Integrity. Paul, who wrote the letter, commands Titus to be a young man of integrity. Integrity means being a person who is honest. Many young men are quick to lie and be dishonest. God calls you to set the example with words of integrity.
If you are a Christian, begin to ask God for help in putting these character traits into practice. In addition, there is one more thing we want to tell you.
You need mentors to help you
Read all of Titus 2. If you do, then you realize that God gives young women and young men a way to accomplish all of what we have described: through the help of mentors. God doesn’t expect you to do this all on your own. He wants you to have a mentor in your life to help you.
Remember, God wants to change every part of your life for your own good. This is why he gives advice to young men and young women in the letter to Titus.
Discussion Questions:
- Watch the video together or invite someone to summarize the topic.
- What is your initial reaction to this video? Do you disagree with any of it? What jumped out at you?
- What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
- Why do you think God commands self-control for both young men and young women?
- Young women, read Titus 2:4-5. What stands out to you in this list. What is something you can begin to put into practice right away?
- Young men, read Titus 2:6-7. What stands out to you in this list. What is something you can begin to put into practice right away?
- What is a mentor? How can mentors help you put into practice the commands of this passage?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
